Listening and speaking are the two skills mostly used for interaction. Listening requires a student to listen and respond as studies show that good listeners are also good responders. With that said, special characteristics of spoken language must be taken into consideration. Such considerations might include interaction, the rate of delivery, stress and intonation. Often times, teachers speak too fast and use language that ELL’s do not comprehend. We must be cognizant when we speak the language. In addition, we must understand that learners do go through a silent period in which they will sit silently absorbing the language. We must not take this as the student being defiant, as this is a developmental stage of language learning. In teaching listening and speaking, educators must also focus on bottom-up techniques which focus on sounds, words, intonation, and other components of spoken language and top-down techniques which focus on prior knowledge. However, focusing too much on bottom-up technique will hinder automaticity in processing speech. Finally, educators must implement lessons and activities that appeal and offer real world tasks to engage students in listening comprehension.

Thanks for your post! I found it very informative. I am studying to become an ESL teacher and have been reading about the importance of using authentic and meaningful language with ELLs. I like the point you made about including activities that are focused on real world tasks to improve listening comprehension. This ties in very well with what I have been learning about authentic language. I think children especially want to know and experience what this new language can be used for. Teaching them how to listen and respond to an activity that is important to them will keep them interested and focused while they are interacting.